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Abstract

This dissertation focuses on promoting SME development by addressing a central constraint of SMEs, namely access finance. Even though availability of external finance matters for the operation and development of firms of all sizes, smaller firms are more likely to be excluded from external finance (e.g. Beck, Demirgüç-Kunt, & Maksimovic, 2005; Beck et al., 2008). Specifically, the dissertation examines how structures of financial systems affect the financing situation of SMEs. On the one hand, it is analyzed how different financial intermediaries and markets within the financial system interact in the fulfillment of their main function to mobilize funds and resources that are channeled into investments and the financing of economic activities. This comprises both interactions between the microfinance sector and the conventional banking sector as well as interactions between capital markets and the banking sector. On the other hand, this dissertation focuses on a different structural dimension of the financial system by investigating the effect of maturity structures in credit markets on the development of firms.